Amateur pilot gets his wings clipped

He had never received any flight training, but that did not stop Li Xianfeng from building his own aircraft and flying it into the sky.

Unfortunately, gravity had other plans for China's leading amateur birdman.

From his hospital bed, Li recently recalled the feeling of hovering 50 meters above the ground before his microlight-style aircraft ploughed into a field north of Beijing on Monday. The flight lasted two minutes.